Arizona immigration law

A federal judge, ruling on a clash between the federal government and a state over immigration policy, has blocked the most controversial parts of Arizona’s immigration enforcement law from going into effect.

In a ruling on a law that has rocked politics coast to coast and thrown a spotlight on the border state’s fierce debate over immigration, United States District Court Judge Susan Bolton in Phoenix said some aspects of the law can go into effect as scheduled on Thursday.

But Judge Bolton took aim at the parts of the law that have generated the most controversy, blocking sections that called for officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws and that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times. Judge Bolton put those sections on hold while she continues to hear the larger issues in the challenges to the law.

“Preserving the status quo through a preliminary injunction is less harmful than allowing state laws that are likely preempted by federal law to be enforced,” she said.

“There is a substantial likelihood that officers will wrongfully arrest legal resident aliens,” she wrote. “By enforcing this statute, Arizona would impose a ‘distinct, unusual and extraordinary’ burden on legal resident aliens that only the federal government has the authority to impose.”

The judge’s decision, which came as demonstrators opposed and supporting the law gathered here and after three hearings in the past two weeks in which she peppered lawyers on both sides with skeptical questions, seemed unlikely to quell the debate.

More evidence that Obama's lawsuit against Arizona is a disaster for Democrats: CBS is out with a new poll that shows 57% of Americans think Arizona's immigration law is "about right" and 17% think it "doesn't go far enough."

After trying to avoid taking a position on the Justice Department's lawsuit against Arizona's immigration law, Harry Reid admitted Friday night in a TV interview that he supports the administration. Transcript via the NRSC:

JON RALSTON: “So that is a yes, you support the administration's lawsuit?”

HARRY REID: “I think it is important that we determine what the . . .”

Look who's stonewalling now.

The Sharron Angle campaign blasted the Obama administration's lawsuit against Arizona today. "Our country's at war on two fronts and we have 10 percent unemployment -- and what is President Obama focused on? Using his Department of Justice to interfere with the sovereignty of Arizona," Angle spokesman Jerry Stacy told THE WEEKLY STANDARD in an email. "Arizona has a right to do what the federal government should have done -- secure the border and enforce the laws already on the books."

The lawsuit against SB1070 has nothing to do with keeping immigration policy in federal hands.

The Justice Department is preparing a lawsuit against Arizona’s controversial immigration law, likely to be filed next week. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a South American interviewer last week that the Obama administration opposes the law because “the federal government should be determining immigration policy.” The idea that the administration seeks to uphold federal sovereignty in matters pertaining to immigration is hard to swallow.

Now a senior administration official tells CBS News that the federal government will indeed formally challenge the law when Justice Department lawyers are finished building the case. The official said Justice is still working on building the case.

President Obama has spoken out against the [Arizona immigration] law because he thinks that the federal government should be determining immigration policy. And the Justice Department, under his direction, will be bringing a lawsuit against the act.